Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to uncover one ethical issue that nurse educators face in their practice. Plagiarism in the academic field has become a serious problem, especially with the widespread use of the internet. Thus, nurse educators have to teach their students about plagiarism and how to avoid unintentional cases of plagiarizing someone else’s work. Additionally, it is their responsibility to provide students with tools to help them avoid plagiarism.
Implications for Nurse Educators
Nursing students are concerned about plagiarism, and students sometimes purposefully plagiarize, but they might also do it unintentionally since they frequently lack a clear knowledge of what plagiarism is. Goodwin and McCarthy (2020) offer a tool that nurse educators can use with students to illustrate the notion of plagiarism visually. The terms “copy-and-paste,” “minimalist paraphrasing,” “pathworking,” and “the twisted grapevine” are used to describe four different types of plagiarism (Goodwin & McCarthy, 2020). Three unique works of art are displayed. Then, these works are changed to provide students with illustrations of the four types of plagiarism. To give students a thorough understanding of this subject, text-based instances of plagiarism are also offered.
Issues Nursing Students Face
Plagiarism derives from the Latin verb “plagiare,” which means to hijack. It involves the deliberate or accidental appropriation of another person’s words or ideas without giving them the proper credit (Khadilkar, 2018). Plagiarism is a long-standing issue. Plagiarism is said to have first been observed in Ireland in AD561, when Colmcille, a monk, duplicated a holy text authored and drawn by his colleague Finnian (Turnitin, 2019). Plagiarism today can take many different forms. For instance, Hollywood directors have reused novelists’ original stories, and academics have passed off other academics’ published or unpublished work as their own. These copycats may range in form, but they all ignore the sources from which they borrowed ideas.
Prevalence of Plagiarism
Concerns have been raised by academic professionals, notably nurse educators, concerning undergraduate plagiarism rates and the apparent decline in students’ writing and citation skills. It has been discovered that between 47 and 60 percent of nursing students plagiarize their assignments, which is substantially higher than the stated rates of plagiarism for students taking courses like commerce or languages, 29 percent, and business studies, 31 percent (Maley, 2020). Even though there are numerous software programs available to help students detect instances where they might not be properly citing their sources, many students frequently find it difficult to tell when they are plagiarizing.
Scope of the Problem
In the past, students would plagiarize other people’s work or use text from unreliable sources. Students can now hire online paper mills to produce their assignments for them or replicate text from online sources (Maley, 2020). In fact, They report that in their study sample, assignments from online paper mills accounted for one-fifth of all allegations of student plagiarism. Students steal work for a variety of reasons. When students are under time constraints or lack enthusiasm for the subject matter, intentional plagiarism frequently happens (Maley, 2020).
Perception of the Students
On the other side, unintentional plagiarism frequently results from a lack of knowledge of academic writing conventions (Maley, 2020). For instance, students may develop negative habits and neglect to properly reference information obtained from online sources as a result of how simple it is to “clip and paste” online (Maley, 2020). What constitutes plagiarism is also a subject of considerable debate. We discovered that 44.8% of nursing students did not think it was wrong to steal someone else’s work without giving them credit (Maley, 2020). Plagiarism is intellectual theft, whether deliberate or not, and students who engage in it risk failing classes and perhaps being expelled from their institutions of higher learning.
Tracking Plagiarism/Tools
Given the potentially catastrophic repercussions for students who plagiarize, it is becoming more and more accepted that understanding the academic environment in which it occurs is essential to combating plagiarism. For instance, the International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) (n.d.) contends that integrity, or the absence thereof, should not be seen as merely a characteristic of individual student behavior. Instead, the ICAI (n.d.) recommends that all academic institutions embrace what they refer to as academic integrity as a vital component of their purpose. Academic integrity, according to the ICAI (n.d.), is “a dedication to five essential values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility” as well as “the courage to act on them even in the face of hardship.” (ICAI, n.d., p. 16).
Academic Community’s Response
Academic communities should promote intellectual and personal integrity in all areas of university life, such as learning, teaching, research, and service delivery, according to the ICAI (n.d.). They ought to promote an environment of trust amongst people where ideas can be freely discussed. In order to support fairness in interactions between students, professors, and administrators, academic communities must “create clear and transparent expectations, standards, and practices” (ICAI, n.d.). The principle of accountability guarantees that academic standards are mutually agreed upon and that actions are done when wrongdoing occurs, while respect fosters cooperation and the acceptance of varied perspectives. Respect is also thought to support the relational character of learning. Finally, according to the ICAI (n.d.), courage is required in order to put the principles of accountability, honesty, trust, and fairness into practice by “standing up for them in the face of pressure and adversity” (para. 28).
Academic Integrity
Research on cheating and academic dishonesty among various cohorts of students enrolling in programs in the natural sciences, engineering, law, and nursing has frequently drawn on the ICAI’s (n.d.) definition of academic integrity. Devine and Chin (2018) propose that honesty, ethical conduct, and professionalism are the defining characteristics of the concept of integrity as it relates to nursing. According to Devine and Chin (2018), one of the primary predictors of nursing students’ integrity is staff members who “show respect for students by providing acceptable assignments, clear expectations, and via the delivery of quality instruction” (p.136). Scholars believe that nursing students perform best in environments where there is mutual respect, honesty, trust, and justice, echoing the ICAI’s (n.d.) definition of integrity.
Greater-Scope of the Problem
As it has been stated, students who indulge in plagiarism may bring such dishonest practices into the working world, so it is crucial that academic integrity standards are instilled in students early on. For instance, Lovrić et al. (2020) mention the case of a psychiatrist who attempted to earn a certificate in cognitive behavioral therapy but plagiarized information from websites and a student’s report. In the real world, this person was found copying and pasting notes from other teachers and passing them off as her own. She also claimed credit for continuing professional development for a course she didn’t take. There is data that suggests a connection between plagiarism as a student nurse and a dishonest approach in clinical practice with regard to nurses.
Addressing the Problem
Despite the fact that nursing students are said to appreciate the importance of academic integrity (Lovrić et al., 2020), it’s critical that they get familiar with academic writing techniques, norms, and expectations as early in their study as possible. Academic integrity must be promoted by educational institutions at the student, faculty, and system levels (Lovrić et al., 2020). Prior research in this field concentrated on programs aimed at improving education in the classroom. For instance, Lovrić et al. (2020)gave tutorial sessions on academic writing to nursing students and had them complete activities on plagiarism; they observed gains in the student’s knowledge and comprehension of plagiarism.
When compared to the control group, they found that this strategy considerably reduced plagiarism rates in the intervention group. However, the actual instructional resources themselves are not made public; rather, the usage of these technologies is only discussed in these published papers (Lovrić et al., 2020). Studies in other fields have shown that, as compared to written or spoken approaches, students perceive that visual reference materials are more helpful in fostering understanding.
Response to Plagiarism
The creation of such instructional tools for use in educational interventions against plagiarism would then appear opportune and acceptable. Furthermore, given the setting of nursing education, the need for doing so is much more urgent. Teaching students how to avoid plagiarism has been described as “neither difficult nor time-consuming” (Lovrić et al., 2020, p. 115). However, prior peer-reviewed literature failed to give students actual instances of plagiarism, as opposed to just descriptive ones. The purpose of this paper is to give nursing educators a resource to use when educating nursing students about academic plagiarism.
Conclusion
When someone borrows another person’s words or ideas without properly attributing them, this is called plagiarism. Students of nurse educators must learn about plagiarism and how to prevent unintended instances of copying someone else’s work. It is their duty to give pupils the resources they need to prevent plagiarism. Up to 60% of nursing students submit assignments that are plagiarized. The reported rates of plagiarism for other subjects are far lower than this one.
Even though there are tools to help students spot plagiarism, many still struggle to identify their own plagiarism. Nowadays, students can pay online paper mills to do their tasks or copy text from online sources. The definition of plagiarism is also a hotly contested topic.
References
Devine, C., & Chin, E. (2018). Integrity in nursing students: A concept analysis. Nurse Education Today, 60, 133-138.
Goodwin, J., & McCarthy, J. (2020). Explaining plagiarism for nursing students: An educational tool. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 15(3), 198-203.
International Center for Academic Integrity [ICAI]. (n.d.). Facts and statistics. Web.
Khadilkar, S. (2018). The plague of plagiarism: Prevention and cure. The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology of India, 68(6), 425-431.
Maley, B. (2020). A Narrative inquiry of associate degree nursing students’ stories about their experience of academic misconduct. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 15(4), 205-209.
Lovrić, R., Milutinović, D., & Žvanut, B. (2020). Psychometric evaluation and cross-cultural adaptation of the Croatian version of Nursing student perceptions of dishonesty scale. Journal of Professional Nursing, 36(5), 432-442.
Turnitin. (2019). 5 historical moments that shaped plagiarism. Web.